Sustainably managing ecosystems is challenging, especially for complex systems such as coral reefs. This study develops critical reference points for sustainable management by using a large empirical dataset on the coral reefs of the western Indian Ocean to investigate associations between levels of target fish biomass (as an indicator of fishing intensity) and eight metrics of ecosystem state....

The fisheries sector in sub-Saharan Africa has benefitted from high and increasing amounts of foreign aid for over four decades. In the 1990s when evidence emerged that most stocks were overcapitalized and overfished, the effectiveness of fisheries development aid, particularly those directed at fishing capacity enhancement, came into question. This report examined the relationship between deve...

Many fisheries are potentially very valuable. According to a recent report by the World Bank and the FAO (2008), global fisheries rents could be as high as US$ 40-60 billion annually on a sustainable basis. However, according to the report, due to the “common property problem”, most fisheries of the world are severely overexploited and generate no economic rents. The Lake Victoria Nile perch fi...

In the future, agriculture alone may not produce food needed to feed increasing world population. Hence, it can be augmented by developing irrigation and water resources, mainly fisheries resources. Ethiopia, especially in Tana Sub-basin, expanded practices building dams weirs along tributaries of Lake did consider nor development management. The aim this research was, therefore, promote integr...

The three decades following World War ii were a period of rapidly increasing fishing effort and landings, but also of spectacular collapses, particularly in small pelagic fish stocks. This is also the period in which a toxic triad of catch underreporting, ignoring scientific advice and blaming the environment emerged as standard response to ongoing fisheries collapses, which became increasingly...

Where they dominate coastlines, seagrass beds are thought to have a fundamental role in maintaining populations of exploited species. Thus, Mediterranean seagrass beds are afforded protection, yet no attempt to determine the contribution of these areas to both commercial fisheries landings and recreational fisheries expenditure has been made. There is evidence that seagrass extent continues to ...

449 Gross revenues from marine capture fisheries worldwide are estimated at between US$80 billion and 85 billion annually1–3. As a primary industry4, fisheries support the wellbeing of nations through direct employment in fishing, processing and ancillary services amounting to between US$220 billion and 235 billion annually in 2003 (ref. 5). Globally, fish provide nearly three billion people wi...

In developing countries, official statistics, national accounts, and economic development initiatives generally focus on commercial, often exportoriented fisheries, which are often perceived to be the major economic contribution of fisheries. While small-scale, non-commercial fisheries, especially near-shore subsistence fisheries, have been recognized as fundamental for social, cultural, and fo...

Climate change is predicted to have a range of direct and indirect impacts on marine and freshwater capture fisheries, with implications for fisheries-dependent economies, coastal communities and fisherfolk. This technical paper reviews these predicted impacts, and introduces and applies the concepts of vulnerability, adaptation and adaptive capacity. Capture fisheries are largely driven by fos...